Today marks the 89th death anniversary of Kamala Nehru, a pioneer of women’s empowerment, whose role in the freedom struggle is hardly remembered as it is overshadowed by the towering presence of not only her husband, Jawaharlal Nehru but also her daughter Indira Gandhi and others in her family – Motilal Nehru, Vijaylakshmi Pandit and Feroze Gandhi.
Kamala, who died of illness when she was only 37, was born in Chandni Chowk, Delhi on August 1, 1899. Her father, Jawaharmal Kaul was a wealthy businessman and her mother, Rajpati was an orthodox Brahmin woman well versed in Ramayana and Mahabharata folklore. At the age of 16, Kamala married 26-year-old Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi on Basant Panchmi day – February 8, 1916. As her husband and father- in-law, the famed Motilal Nehru, under the inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi, had thrown themselves in the freedom struggle, the life at Anand Bhavan, their palatial residence at Allahabad, turned from luxury to simple living.
Jawaharlal Nehru and his wife Kamala Nehru on their wedding day on February 8, 1916. Photo: Unknown author, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
This change to austerity was to the liking of Kamala as she was never at home with the earlier western style of living of her father-in-law who now turned a new leaf with the beginning of the Non-cooperation Movement in 1920. The change also brought Kamala and Jawaharlal Nehru closer to each other as she started taking interest in his active political life. But it also brought long spells of separation due to Jawaharlal Nehru’s frequent terms of imprisonment and his hectic schedule in the ever increasing political activities.
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The young couple were totally dependent on Motilal Nehru financially and Jawaharlal Nehru felt uncomfortable in this position. He wrote in his autobiography:
“My wife and I did not spend much. Indeed I was quite surprised to find how little we spent… Khadi clothes and third class railway travelling demanded little money.. we were not much of a burden on father and even a hint of this kind would have pained him greatly… these family affairs and financial worries carried us from the beginning of 1923 to 1925.”
At the end of 1924, Kamala fell grievously ill and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The doctors advised that she be taken to Switzerland for treatment which was an expensive affair. Jawaharlal Nehru, who had no regular income, had to sell Kamala’s jewellery for her treatment. Though she partially recovered after a long treatment abroad, Kamala continued to suffer periodically from tuberculosis.
Swaroop Rani. Photo: Unknown author, nehrumemorial.nic.in, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
By April 1930, the country was in the grip of Civil Disobedience Movement and Jawaharlal Nehru was in prison as other leaders of the Congress. But a remarkable thing happened – Indian women came forward in large numbers, much larger than during the Non-cooperation Movement, a decade earlier. Kamala played a heroic role in the political awakening of women. As president of the District Congress Committee she constantly moved about Allahabad district to mobilise women and youth, picketed shops selling liquor, foreign cloth and took out processions and braved lathi charges. Her mother- in-law, Swaroop Rani was hit on the head in one such charge and was seriously injured. As a Congress volunteer, Kamala donned a male attire – khadi pyjamas, kurta and Gandhi cap.
The period 1930-31 saw almost all the members of the Nehru family imprisoned from time to time. Besides Motilal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru this included Kamala and her two sisters-in law, Swarup (Vijaylakshmi Pandit) and Krishna as also their close relatives residing in the iconic Anand Bhavan. Kamala herself was incarcerated on January 1, 1931 but was was released after two months as her health deteriorated in jail.
The four years of struggle from 1930-34 saw a sharp decline in Kamala’s health with Jawaharlal Nehru languishing in one jail or the other. This was Kamala’s loneliest period in her life. The death of Motilal Nehru in February 1931 created a void in the lives of the family members, and Kamala’s health again began to deteriorate. She found solace in spirituality. She became a devoted follower of Swami Sivananda of Ramakrishna Math and often wrote letters to him, and after his death to his disciple, Swami Abhayananda. In one of the letters to the latter she wrote: “Ever since the great one (Sivananda) entered samadhi, I feel he is with me and if I get restless I think of Lord Krishna. I have started reading the Gita… it gives me much pleasure.”
Based on medical advice, Kamala was taken to Almora for treatment and then to Europe for the second and last time – first to Badenweiler sanatorium in the Black Forest of Germany and then to Lausanne (Geneva) where she breathed her last on February 28, 1936. Subash Chandra Bose, who was in Europe at that time, rushed to Lausanne, and helped his closest ideological comrade with the cremation arrangements. Only a few days earlier he had written to Jawaharlal Nehru: “If I could be of any service in your present trouble, I hope you will not hesitate to send for me.”
Mahatma Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital at Allahabad and earlier stated in his tribute: “I have not known a truer, braver and more god fearing woman.”
In the November 25, 1939 edition of Harijan, he wrote: “On the 19th instant I had the privilege of laying the foundation stone of the Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital in Allahabad before a large gathering. This hospital will be not only a fitting remembrance of the memory of a true devotee of her country and a woman of great spiritual beauty, it will be a redemption of the promise made to her by me that I would do what lay in my power to see that the work for which she had made herself responsible was carried on even after her death.”
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Jawaharlal Nehru, who had just finished writing his autobiography dedicated it to his beloved wife with the touching words: ‘To Kamala who is no more.” The mention of her name invariably brought tears to his eyes. “We were deeply attached to each other,” he said a few years before his death in 1964. Ten years older than Kamala, Jawaharlal Nehru survived her by 28 years and always kept a portion of her ashes by his bedside.
Praveen Davar is a columnist and author of Freedom Struggle and Beyond.
